30 April 2015 – Global law firm Mayer Brown announced today that David Harrison will join the firm as a partner in the London office, where he will co-lead the European Antitrust & Competition team and become one of the group leaders of the global Antitrust practice.

David joins Mayer Brown from Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP, where he has been a partner and head of the firm’s EU & Competition team since 2005, having joined to establish its stand-alone competition practice. Prior to this, David was a partner at Allen & Overy from 1998-2005 and spent 10 years in the firm’s Brussels office.

David has practised competition law for over 27 years, and has advised numerous major global corporations across a wide range of sectors. He has represented parties to some of the largest and most high profile global cartel investigations of recent years, including the European Commission’s investigations concerning foreign exchange, automotive parts and freight forwarding, as well as various national investigations within the European Union and other jurisdictions worldwide.

His merger control experience includes advising on many high profile cases, obtaining clearance of numerous transactions under the UK merger control rules and coordinating complex multi-jurisdictional cases. David has also advised on abuse of dominance, complaints, compliance and litigation at EU and national level, as well as on investigations and other competition matters in regulated sectors. He has extensive State aid experience, including on major infrastructure and public sector projects.

David Allen, Litigation & Dispute Resolution practice leader at Mayer Brown, said: “David is a considerably accomplished and experienced competition lawyer and his arrival will strengthen our ability to provide clients will the very best legal advice in this area. His appointment also signals an important step in our long term plans to further integrate our antitrust and competition capabilities across Europe.”

At Mayer Brown David will co-lead the European team alongside Dr. Jens Peter Schmidt, who is based in Brussels, spearheading the continued growth of the firm’s competition practice in Europe, which includes leading practitioners based in the firm’s Brussels, Düsseldorf, London and Paris offices.

Lawyers in Mayer Brown’s global Antitrust & Competition practice operate across offices in Asia, Europe, Latin America and the United States. They advise on all aspects of competition and related regulatory law, including cartels, mergers, competition litigation, IP licensing, abusive conduct, State aid, sectoral regulation and EU law. Members of the practice have been recognised for their expertise in areas spanning US cartel investigations and antitrust litigation, to merger control and other aspects of competition law in China, Hong Kong, Brazil and France.

“I look forward enormously to working with Jens and the rest of the worldwide team,” said David Harrison. “Internationally, Mayer Brown has a hugely strong antitrust capability, with a market-leading reputation across a wide range of areas and locations on four continents. The firm has ambitious plans to develop this further, in the context of the growth of its global antitrust practice and the wider firm. It is a very exciting time to join the firm and I welcome the opportunity to work with the team to achieve its goals.”

David has been recognised for many years as a leading competition lawyer by Global Competition Review, Legal 500, Chambers and other directories, and was for 10 years a member of the EU Law Committee of The Law Society of England and Wales. He will join Mayer Brown on 20 May.